Friday, September 28, 2007

Pssst! Pass It On!

I have an assignment for you! If you are a homeschooler, or have friends who are, please pass this question on to them. I would love to gather as many ideas in the comments as I can. (And by that I mean numbers in the double digits--which would be a first here at The Family Revised!!! Whoo Hoo!)

I remembered we had a Scrabble Junior game yesterday. I thought, "Wow. That would be a great way to sneak some spelling in with Sweetheart (2nd grade) and have fun, too!" So here's my question:

What ways do you sneak learning in?

And just for the record, I'm not talking about that rationalizing we all joke about. You know where we say to ourselves, "Sorting laundry is TOO math!" :) I'm kidding. (I mean, it is math for my 3 year old, but not so much by say, 5th grade?!)

So how about it? What wonderful ways have you found to get your kids involved with learning before they have a chance to figure out it's really "school." I need some help from the veterans here!!!

I'm no "veteran" (this is our first year of homeschool) but I am finding that shifting my mindset away from "math means subtraction problems on a worksheet" and "grammar means diagramming sentences" is crucial. Sorting laundry IS math, and it's much more useful than a worksheet. Picking out all the nouns in a Bible verse IS grammar. Estimate the total as you grocery shop. Learn distance, rate, and time as you drive somewhere. Etc, etc, etc! Homeschool gives us the ability to teach the three R's in the context of real, daily life, and that is learning at its finest!

I so much want to homeschool, but I feel like my reasons for not doing so are valid - but when I read about happy homeschooling families like yours, my heart aches. And thanks for liking my Ramona picture! Somedays it's just HARD to be a Merry Sunshine.

Ah, learning is like spinach. Its so cool to sneak it in when they are unaware!

I agree with the others...games are great. Scrabble, those Brain Quest cards..

I do some "school" in the summer - more hands on type stuff. But I never call it school. We have all kinds of activities and projects that are fun and exciting - and they never know they have covered Old Testament History. :)